Faith consoles couple
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Of course there's fear and trepidation when circumstances place you on a road few have ever contemplated, let alone traveled.
Bob and Karla Williams know better than most about that. Even so, the Medina couple is confident they're moving in the right direction.
They have a strong faith as their compass and a soundtrack of hope playing in their heads. And they're buoyed by the unfaltering support of friends, family and their church — Medina's Prince of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church.
They're also under the care of a second-to-none medical team at the Cleveland Clinic, where it's anticipated 52-year-old Bob Williams will have the transplant he so desperately needs to survive.
Bob has been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and advanced emphysema, and he needs a double lung and heart transplant.
According to medical literature, in people with dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart's ability to pump blood is greatly diminished because its main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, is enlarged and weak. The kidneys eventually start retaining water and sodium, causing fluid buildup in the legs, feet, lungs and other organs. This leads to congestive heart failure.
Bob — who formerly worked as a machinist, for a hardware store and in maintenance at the Medina Housing Authority — began experiencing a major health decline in 2003.
His first defibrillator was implanted the following year.
''The defibrillator is there if he goes into cardiac arrest,'' his wife explained. ''They call it 'the paramedic in your chest.' ''
He received a replacement defibrillator in December at MetroHealth.
Bob — now on disability — has suffered one problem after another.
''In November after a heart catheterization at the Cleveland Clinic, my husband's pulmonary specialist said we should look into a double-lung transplant,'' Karla Williams said.
However, it was determined Bob's heart was much too weak to handle two lungs, that he would need a heart as well.
So, a daunting battery of tests — EKG/echocardiogram with bubble study, colonoscopy, GI studies, vaccinations, etc. needed to qualify him for the multiple-organ transplant surgery — began in earnest with more to come.
Williams is on 2 1/2 liters of oxygen day and night. When he's moving around, it gets cranked up to about 6.
''When Bob was healthy he served on the church properties board,'' Karla Williams said, taking great pride in talking about her husband of 23 years.
As late as last summer he managed to change the door lock at the church from his wheelchair.
Apart from his family and his church, what Bob Williams most enjoyed — cutting the grass, planting flowers, general maintenance at his home, riding his motorcycle and fishing — he's no longer able to do.
''He was known as Tim the Tool-Time Man in the neighborhood,'' his wife said as her husband nodded in agreement.
He nodded again when talk turned to the benefit spaghetti dinner the church is planning to assist him with the costs surrounding the transplant not covered by his wife's health insurance.
The dinner — sponsored by the church, Thrivent Financial and Romeo's Pizza — is planned for 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the church, 3355 Medina Road.
Cost is $9, adults; $6, children 12 and younger.
Planners are praying for a full house, that folks near and far will look inward and ask the question ''What if it were me? My family?'' and will move accordingly.
For more information, please contact Lori Milroy or Dorothy Davis at lmilroy@zoominternet.net. Donations are encouraged. Make all checks payable to Medina County chapter for Thrivent Financial and mail them to the church.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will match money raised 50 cents on the dollar up to $3,000.
''I don't know the words to say how grateful I am,'' Bob Williams said. ''I just thank God and everybody for helping us out.''
Karla Williams said she and her husband have taken as their motto ''If God leads us to it, he can lead us through it.''
Indeed, that's everyone's prayer.
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